


Just Being Together

by HomuraBakura



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: 30 Minute Fic, F/M, Oldersiblingshipping, Oneshot, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-07
Updated: 2016-07-07
Packaged: 2018-07-22 04:39:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7420219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HomuraBakura/pseuds/HomuraBakura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You don't really have to worry so much about making up for lost time.  You just have to learn how to be together again."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just Being Together

“You okay?  You seem a little off today.”

He blinked, a grogginess still hazing over his eyes.  When had she come up next to him?  Akari stood next to him, leaning over very close to his face to peer at his computer screen.  She leaned over so that her elbows rested on the desk beside him, her head balanced on her fists.

“I’m fine…why?” V asked.

“Because you just put the wrong data points in about five times in a row,” Akari said, thrusting a finger at the screen—but without touching it, like Thomas was always apt to do.  At least she understood the importance of keeping fingerprints off the screen.  “You only do that when you’re distracted.”

V squinted at the numbers for a moment, his vision still a bit blurry from staring at the screen for so long.  He swore softly.

“Dammit, that’s going to put me back…how did I miss that…”

Akari shoved her hips against his stomach to make his rolling chair roll out of the way of the desk.

“Move over, pretty boy, let me fix it.  You’re clearly not all here.”

“Akari, please, I’d rather—”

“Chris.”

Like always, he felt something of an odd shudder go through him at the sound of his real name.  They had gone back to using their real names so many months ago, and yet…sometimes it still felt somehow wrong.  Almost alien, like it wasn’t his anymore.

He let her take his spot at the computer, standing up and rolling the chair back behind her so that she could sit down.  Her tongue came out between her teeth as she picked at the keys, fixing his mistakes with that narrow focus that had drawn him to her in the first place.  She finished with a last flourish on the keys.  Then she spun around in her chair, crossed one leg over the other, and leaned back, staring at him.

“Okay.  Spill,” she said.  “You’re distracted.  Why?”

V found himself wincing slightly as the thoughts danced over his head.

“It’s…it’s really—”

“If you say ‘it’s really nothing’ I’m gonna punch you,” Akari said, raising an eyebrow.

He laughed softly.

“No, I wasn’t going to say that,” he said.  “It’s about III and IV—I mean—Michael and Thomas.”

Again, the forgetting—it was so easy to slip back to those old names, those symbols of their attempts to leave their old life behind.  They weren’t able to, in the end, were they?  They couldn’t give up their identities—but it was hard to take them back, too.

Akari tilted her head towards him, waiting for him to continue.  He hesitated a moment, choosing his words.

“Both of their birthdays are coming up soon,” he said.  “They’re a few days apart.  Both July.”

“Nice—tell them happy birthday for me if I don’t see them.”

He chuckled, but tilted his head forward so that his bangs hid his eyes.

“I will…”

Akari scootched forward on her chair until she was able to peek under his bangs, forcing herself into his vision.

“And?” she said softly.  “What’s wrong?”

V sighed, meeting her gaze.  He ran a hand through his hair.

“When our father came back and brought them both home from the foster home, we thought our family was going to come back together.  But it didn’t.  We spent all our time on revenge.  We lost parts of ourselves.”

He felt Akari’s fingers weaving into the ends of his hair where it draped over his shoulders.

“We spent almost a year together like that,” he murmured, feeling his throat constrict.  “I didn’t celebrate their birthdays then.  Four years that I hadn’t even gotten to see them, and I didn’t even say happy birthday during that year.  I…I didn’t…take care of them…like I should have…”

Akari’s hands ran up his hair until her fingers were laced around the back of his neck, her head tilted up towards him.

“So you feel guilty,” she whispered.  “This year you have a chance to make it better, but you’re afraid you won’t make up for it as much as you should.”

He tried to smile, let out a breathy laugh, but it felt hollow.

“Ever the journalist,” he murmured.  “Sometimes, though, you act more like a psychologist.”

Akari blew out through her lips.  Her breath tickled his cheek.

“You know, when my parents disappeared, Yuma and I started fighting,” she said.  “I might have driven him away a little.  I even tried to confiscate his Duel Monsters cards.”

“No,” he said, disbelieving.

“Yeah,” she said.  He leaned into her forehead, pressed his hand against her cheek.  Her eyes fluttered closed.  “We barely talked for the next few years.  It took us ages to figure each other out again.”

He drew his hand down the line of her cheekbone, and she pressed one hand against the top of his.  Her eyes opened so that she could look up at him.

“But when we did…I think we learned something,” she said.

“And what was that?” he breathed.

“Making up for things…it’s not really something you have to do,” she said.  “You just…have to remember being with each other again.  That’s enough.”

Her eyes never dropped, never wavered.  It was that gaze of hers, he thought, that was why he loved her so much.  She never looked away, no matter how hard it was.

He sighed, closed his eyes.

“Thank you, Akari,” he said.

He felt her lips touch his nose briefly.

“Hey,” she said.  “That’s what I’m here for.  Being there for you.  And vice versa, you know.”

He found her free hand and twined his fingers into hers.

“Just being there, hm?” he said.  “I think…I think I can do that.”


End file.
